A Fair Trade
by sariahsue
Summary: Why wasn't Cat Noir leaving! His timer only had ten seconds left! "You need to-" But Marinette didn't get to finish her sentence. The akuma jerked back to life and flipped to the side, sending Cat Noir sailing through the hole and into the fog. Five seconds. He was going to die. HE WAS GOING TO DIE.


The day had started out with such potential. A field trip to the Eiffel Tower. A forecast for sparkling summer weather. And Alya and Nino had agreed to sit together on the bus so Marinette could have Adrien to herself.

If only it had lived up to that potential.

Unexpected rain had turned into unexpected fog, heavy enough to block the view. Adrien was probably halfway across the city by now for a last-minute photoshoot. She was stuck at the most romantic spot in Paris, without the love of her life.

To make matters even worse, Chloe was bored. She'd loudly announced that the Eiffel Tower was dull and uninteresting. ("Just as lame as the last six times I was here. Why don't you people add some new attractions already?!") She became so vicious and unrelenting that only ten minutes into the tour, the guide finally dissolved into tears. They'd been left to wander around on their own ever since.

Marinette leaned against the railing on the second level, trying to pretend she enjoyed watching the patchy fog twist and swirl. Well, at least it was a patrol night. Laughing with Cat Noir always cheered her up.

She was snapped out of her melancholy by terrified shrieks and a harsh laugh.

"Where are you, Chloe Bourgeois?" called a woman's voice. "You're going to be our new main attraction!" Marinette dropped her head onto the railing in exasperation. Of course there would be an akuma to make things worse. You would think that Chloe would eventually learn.

Frightened tourists backed away from the speaker, pushing Marinette against the railing and the steel wires that protected visitors.

She looked for a place to transform, but of course she couldn't see one. Not that she would have been able to get to it. A sudden spike of alarm lanced through her middle. She had to get away to transform, and she had to do it fast, before the akuma victim caught her. That was going to be difficult.

The crowd kept inching back, crushing her more tightly against the metal cage. Several electric zaps cut through the air and people started to scream and run, and Marinette was almost knocked over. She righted herself and craned her neck to try to see over the crowd, until she felt a hand close over her wrist, making her jump.

"This way!" Ms. Bustier said, tugging insistently. "There's still room in the lift." They pushed against the stream of people heading toward the stairs and slipped into the crowded lift, Kim, Alix, and Ivan guarding the entrance, right before the doors slid closed.

Chloe sighed as the lift started its slow descent. "As if this field trip wasn't bad enough."

"Well, it's your own fault!" Alya said. She had her phone out, but she wasn't using it. There was nothing interesting to record in here. Nino's hand was clamped around her wrist. He'd probably had to literally drag her away.

"It's not my fault that she couldn't handle a little constructive criticism."

Ms. Bustier tried to break up the argument, and Marinette shuffled away from the three of them, though she couldn't get very far.

 _If I don't save Chloe this time,_ she thought, _would she learn her lesson? [italics]_ The idea was tantalizing.

The lift creaked slowly downward, then gave a shuddering jerk and a grinding squeal before stopping completely.

"Finally," said Chloe, pushing her way to the front.

A rusty film of metal started to coat the doors, spreading to the ceiling, the buttons, the floor. Ivan and Kim were still the closest to the door, and they tried to force it open to free the class, but the doors had been welded shut.

"It's stuck!" Kim said. The whole class went silent.

Marinette put a hand over her purse, where Tikki was hidden, her heartbeat very loud. Now what? She couldn't transform here, but she couldn't escape on her own.

"Well, at least we'll be safe in here," Ms. Bustier said, trying to sound calm. "We'll be out as soon as Ladybug gets here."

Marinette reminded herself to breathe.

"Chloe, we're going to miss the whole thing," Alya growled.

"How is this my fault?"

"Let me spell it out for you!"

There was a loud thud on the roof of the lift, and the entire class looked up fearfully. Had the akuma thrown something at them? Footsteps echoed overhead, and the class huddled together.

Alya was the only one who dared so much as a whisper. "I vote we offer Chloe as a sacrifice."

"Alya!" Miss Bustier hissed at her.

The person above them slammed something against the door.

"Cataclysm!"

Everyone except Marinette cheered as the the doors rusted through and crumbled and Cat Noir swung himself down from the roof of the lift. Marinette was relieved to be free, but also edging toward panic. The countdown had started. He had five minutes. She had five minutes to find a place to transform so she could take his place.

Cat Noir smiled at all of them and directed them to follow the other fleeing tourists. "Ladybug will be along any minute. Don't worry," he added, reassuringly.

While the class ignored his advice and enthusiastically thanked the superhero for saving them instead (and Alya and Nino tried to get a selfie with him), Marinette started scanning the area. People flooded her vision in every direction. She had to transform, and she couldn't do it here. Panicking parents pushed and bumped into each other. Children cried. Throngs of people exited the lifts and stampeded down the stairs and out into the gloomy weather. She couldn't let anyone see her. Where could she go?

After so many akuma attacks, she had an eerie sense of _exactly_ [italics] how long five minutes was. She didn't need to look at his ring to know that one paw print was already gone. Cat Noir needed to leave even more badly than Ladybug needed to arrive. She wasn't going to risk his identity.

Marinette looked back over to the stairs, where the crowd was beginning to thin and realized where she needed to be. If everyone was abandoning the upper levels, it was going to be her best for finding a private place. She slipped away from her class and snaked through the crowd.

"Excuse me," she said as she shoved people out of her way on the stairs. Three and a half minutes. "I'm sorry. Pardon. Please, I need to hurry."

She made it to the landing and burst through the edge of the crowd. As she'd hoped, aside from those waiting to get down the stairs and statues of those who hadn't been fast enough, the second level was almost abandoned. If she could make it to the third level, she knew it would be completely deserted. But did she have enough time? She would have to be fast. Cat Noir only had three paw prints left.

She raced up the stairs and past more statues, relieved to find herself finally alone, but she skidded to a stop when she heard her name.

"Marinette!" That was Nino's voice. She turned to see him, Alya, and Cat Noir sprinting after her. "What do you think you're doing?"

Alya had her phone out and was capturing footage of all the frozen people. Some had stopped mid-run or scream. Most had been posed before being petrified, a juggler here, a ballerina there. "Chloe will be disappointed with the new features," she said. "She hates statues."

"Come on," Cat Noir, reaching for her. "It's not safe here."

Right on time, her internal alarm warned her that he only had two minutes left just before his ring beeped again. If he detransformed, the akuma would see him, which meant Hawk Moth would see him. And Alya and the Ladyblog would see him. And she'd see him.

"You need to get going," she said, pushing him back. "Your ring."

"I'm not leaving until I'm sure you're safe, Princess."

Alya whipped the phone around and trained it on them when she heard the endearment. "What was that?"

"Nothing!" Marinette said. Alya was going to show his identity on her livestream if he didn't get out of there soon.

"CAT NOIR!" The akuma floated into view, looking a lot like a statue herself. Her clothes had been changed into flowing metallic robes. Waves of hair streamed out motionless behind her. Her arms were locked into an outstretched, straining grasp. Her face was gray and frozen in twisted rage. She floated several inches off the ground, and when she spoke, her mouth didn't move. The words simply echoed in the air all around them. "Give me your miraculous!" The only movement around her was the lanyard and ID badge, which hovered about her neck and glowed deep purple.

Hawk Moth wanted to get him while he was partnerless, she realized. She needed to transform. NOW.

"Go, go!" Cat Noir said, stepping forward between them and the akuma and raising his baton.

Alya held her phone up, but Nino grabbed her around the waist and pulled her away. He caught Marinette around the wrist and yanked her back as well. "We'll help him better by being out of the way."

Marinette couldn't take her eyes off her partner. He had one paw print left. One minute. And he was facing the akuma alone so she could escape. There was no more time to wait for Ladybug.

She twisted out of Nino's grasp, then grabbed his hat and ran toward the akuma. Cat Noir was luring the woman away, toward the opposite wall, and her back was to the three of them. The buzz of electricity crackled in the air.

"No!" Marinette yelled, and threw herself at the unsuspecting akuma as a jet of black light shot out of the ID badge. It went off course by inches, missing Cat Noir and blasting out a large chunk of the railing. That had almost been him.

The akuma toppled to the ground, and Marinette didn't give her time to recover. She yanked the lanyard off and jammed the hat down, pulling it snuggly over the woman's eyes. With her arms frozen the way they were, she wouldn't be able to remove it. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep her out of trouble and blind Hawk Moth until she could cleanse the ID badge.

Wind from the hole brushed the hair out of her eyes and she stepped away from it warily, quickly checking to make sure the civilians were far away from it.

Cat Noir had thirty seconds left. She could hear the countdown in her head. He still needed to get out of there. Instead, he asked her if she was okay.

"Marinette!" Alya screamed, livestream forgotten. "You- What- What was that?!"

"Uh..."

Alya flung her arms around her, making her drop the lanyard. "You could have died!"

Twenty seconds. She looked at Cat Noir, who was looking at her with the same shocked expression that Alya and Nino wore. No one was paying attention to the akuma.

"I had to do something!" she said. "It's my job."

"What?" Cat Noir asked, distracted.

"As... a concerned citizen... to help the heroes of Paris? We all have to help when we can, right?" Why wasn't he leaving?! He only had ten seconds! "You need to-"

But Marinette didn't get to finish her sentence. The statue akuma jerked back to life and flipped to the side, sending Cat Noir sailing through the hole and into the fog.

Five seconds.

He was going to die.

 _He was going to die. [italics]_

Marinette didn't have time to second-guess herself. She sprinted to the hole and dove after him. Alya's scream was drowned out by the rush of the wind.

She couldn't hear the final, frantic beeps from his ring. She reached for him, her poor partner who cared more about her safety than his own, who looked terrified and reached up for her. Green light appeared at his feet and slid up his body as she shouted, "Spots on!"

Ladybug grabbed Adrien's hand and reached for her yoyo.

"Marinette?!" he asked, barely audible over the cold wind.

Ladybug couldn't think. Now was not the time for thoughts. She could think later about his identity, about how she twisted her arm around Adrien's middle and held him close to her, about all the times he'd said he loved her.

She swung back up to the top of the tower, making sure to land where Alya and Nino couldn't get to them. She couldn't believe it. Adrien stood in front of her. His kwami took one look at their faces and decided it was best to hide in Adrien's pocket, though she thought he could hear him snickering to himself.

She knew they needed to get back and cleanse the akuma, that she shouldn't let Alya and Nino worry, that they should make sure the tour guide wasn't causing any more trouble, but they continued to stare at each other. The way he was looking at her was making her dizzy, wide-eyed wonder mixed with loving adoration. He cared about her with a mask, he cared about her without a mask, he cared about _her. [italics]_

He took a step forward, reaching, like he meant to touch her face, but he thought better of it and scratched his arm awkwardly instead. "You... you realize you just told three people your secret identity, right?"

Her mind was tumbling, twisting and releasing, as she absorbed the new information about him. Her thoughts may have been jumbled, but her feelings had never been clearer... or stronger.

"My identity for your life?" She grabbed his hand and lifted it up for a quick kiss. Adrien sucked in sharply and turned bright red. "Seems like a fair trade."

* * *

 _Author's note: Thank you so much to buggachat (buggachat . tumblr . com) for the inspiration and permission to write this! Several weeks ago, she posted a gif of Marinette and Cat Noir falling, with them both transforming into Ladybug and Adrien at the same moment. Go check out her tumblr (or mine - I reblogged it) to see it!_


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